JURIES

Ashraf Shishir (Juries Chairman)

Filmmaker, Scriptwriter, and Human rights activist

Jury member for several international film festivals in the USA, Canada, Germany, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Iran.
· Red Rock Film Festival, Utah, USA -2015
· Houston Cinemania Film Festival, Texas, USA – 2016
· Sheikh Russel National Children Film Festival, Dhaka, Bangladesh – 2016
· Walur Lake International Film Festival, Kashmir, India – 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
· Widescreen Film & Music Festival, Florida, USA- 2018
· WOW International Film Festival, Jordan-Morocco-Tunisia – 2020
· Sylhet Film Festival, Sylhet, Bangladesh- 2018,2019, 2020,2023
· Bogra International Film Festival, Bogra, Bangladesh – 2024
· Los Angeles Short Film Festival, Los Angeles, United States – 2024
· Queens World Film Festival, New York, United States – 2024
· 16 International Film Festivals (16IFF)- Jaipur International Film Festival, Jaipur, India – 2024
· ZCOMS Film Festival, Karachi, Pakistan – 2024
· Norgs International Independent Festival (NIIF), Isfahan, Iran – 2024
· Saskatchewan International Film Festival, Saskatoon, Canada – 2024
· Screaming Ostrich International Film Festival, Massachusetts, United States-2024

 

· ETHOS Film Awards, Los Angeles, United States & Germany- 2024
· South Texas International Film Festival, Edinburg, United States-2024

Kasim Jeshi (Jury)

Kasim Jeshi completed postgraduate in Mass Communication/ Journalism. She have over 20 years of experience in the field of Journalism in India. Currently working as Senior Assistant Editor with MetroPlus, the features desk of The Hindu, a 143-year-old national newspaper in India and seeking new challenges every day. Rated as a consistent performer, she have significant exposure in reporting, feature writing, production, and editing. And also she focusing on writing crisp, reader-friendly, flab-free articles. Light, but not frivolous. She play an integral part in the production department where she oversee the features edition in terms of content and design. Besides striking headings, she also work with the design team to ensure that the product is visually stunning. As part of the production work, she edit stories, rewrite, check for facts, eliminate jargon and ensure that the copies are error-free before sending the edition to print. She design pages, make them live with the addition of visuals, and info boxes, and am always conscious of meeting the deadline.

A keen observer of emerging trends, she engage with readers on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Besides making videos and reels on Instagram, & she host Instagram lives with personalities.

SIVAKUMAR VELUSAMY (Jury)

Independent filmmaker / Actor / Film Festival Jury

With nearly seven years of work experience in the film industry, SIVAKUMAR VELUSAMY (aka. Siva) is a seasoned professional. Born and raised in India, and now living in California, USA, Siva holds a Bachelor’s engineering degree in Computer science and is certified in Arts and film production /media stream. He has enjoyed a multifaceted career as a Filmmaker-Actor, producer, writer, and post-production Head. Siva has acted in feature films/pilots/short films and directed award-winning short films.

Siva is a Director Guild of America writer union member and is actively involved as a jury/ festival coordinator and volunteer in many film festivals nationwide.

Amudhan R. P (Jury)

Amudhan R. P.  (Puṣhpam Rāmaliŋkam Amudhaņ), born in 1971 in Madurai) is a documentary filmmaker and media activist. Along with local youth, he founded Marupakkam, a media activism group involved with making documentaries, and organizing regular screenings, film festivals, and media workshops in and around Madurai. He has been making documentaries since 1997. His prominent films include two trilogies on caste and nuclear radiation. ‘Shit’ won the best film award at the One Billion Eyes film festival in 2005 and the National Jury Award at the MIFF in 2006.

Amudhan R.P. founded Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival in 1998 and Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival has been organizing the festival since then.

Click Here to learn more in Wikipedia / Blogger

Arunkumar Senthil (Jury)

Independent filmmaker

Arunkumar Senthil is an Independent Director & Scriptwriter living in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Since 2004, He has engaged as an Actor, Script Writer and Discussion crew because of his passion for Filmmaking. In 2016, His 1st Tamil Short Film, “Sudha – Transgender”, was completed, received a few awards, and watched nearly 1 Million views on YouTube. In 2018, His 2nd Short Film, “The Boy – Transgirl”, completed and got a few awards in Film Festivals. In 2020, He directed and produced His Independent Debut Tamil Feature film “Coffee Café”.The film “Coffee Café” was getting better recognition from Film Festivals and was released at OTT. Documentary THE NUDITY, which talks about srs surgery of Transwomen-2021.Now he has finished his second movie named Makeup, based on a street play artist’s life incident, and he is waiting for festival results in 2024